Yesterday we took a look at the power of starting your worship gatherings different. Now let’s learn some practical ways you can actually start your gatherings differently!

Over the past 6 months, how many of your worship gatherings have started exactly the same? "Hey everyone! Welcome to church! Let's stand and worship!" (transition into fast song). It's easy to find a worship gathering structure that flows well and stick to it. From there, it's plug and play. "I need 5 songs - 4 before the message and 1 response song after." Plug the songs in and continue the system into eternity.

Incorporate these 5 simple tips to instantly improve your worship leading!

This chord works well in the key of C along with these chords…

The average person spends nearly 2 hours a day on social media. There's no doubt that social media has a growing influence on our day to day lives. What if you could use social media to improve your worship leading?

I challenge you to own your role tomorrow.

Worship rehearsal can start to feel like a chore after a while. Changing things up just a little bit can go a long way. Making a simple change can allow your team to look at things in a new light. Changing environments can increase creativity. Don't feel like you need to be locked in to the same routine every single rehearsal.

Generally, when we think about rest, we consider it terms of ourselves needing rest. But the overall rest of your team is just as important. The truth is most people will not rest from serving unless you ask them. This is especially true in smaller churches where there is only one person who fills a role.

There are two types of people on a worship team: those who fill a role and those who own a role. If you've been on a team for any amount of time you can instantly identify both types of people. Those people who go all in show up early, have their music memorized, and always go the extra mile. They don't just fill a role, they own it! They take ownership of their responsibility to the team.

This chord works well in the key of C along with these chords…

Have you ever had one of those Sundays where it's time to start but no one is in the room yet? You don't want to start before people arrive so you push your service starting time back a little bit further every Sunday until eventually you find that you're starting your service 15 minutes late. What can you do?

It's hard to say no to someone who wants to join the worship team. Sometimes, no is the right answer. Your role as worship leader is not to say yes to everyone - it's to do what's best for the church. In fact, it's impossible to say yes to everyone about everything because people have differing points of view.

Routines are important because they provide a system of things that you can do without thinking. They are a series of habits that you develop over time. If you instill the right habits, then you're Sunday morning routine can be beneficial. If you simply wake up late, get a shower, and arrive at rehearsal a minute before it starts, there is more you can do to help you lead well.

I challenge you to model worship tomorrow.

Evaluation is the key to consistently growing. In order to improve, you have to know where you are, where you want to be, and how you are going to get there. This is true on a personal level and even more necessary when it comes to improving as a team. The more people that are involved in the process, the more difficult it is to improve. When it's just you who needs to improve, you can come up with ways to improve your skill. But when a team is involved, there are a ton of other variables that factor into your ability to improve.

This chord works well in the key of E along with these chords…

It's okay to have fun with your team. It doesn't have to be all work. It's easy to get caught in a routine of just running through songs, maybe doing a quick devotional, and heading home. But, some of the best and most important moments with your team are those moments that happen outside of your normal rehearsal time. These are the moments where you truly get to know each other and these get togethers can take your team to a whole new level as they build deeper relationships.

The hardest conversation a worship leader can have isn't saying no to someone when they want to join the team. The hardest conversation is when someone is already on the team and has to be removed. Maybe you've inherited a problem person. Maybe in a moment of weakness you let someone on the team who wasn't quite ready yet. So what can you do?

Here's the truth: What you do in private comes out in public. Those private disciplines you've built over the years slowly but surely creep into your public life. That can be either scary or exhilarating. You may be able to fake it and do all the things that you're supposed to do for a while, but eventually the true you comes out.

Do you ever feel like you're overwhelmed with the amount of responsibility that you have at church? From creating slides to leading rehearsal to picking songs for the week to developing your team to leading worship. The list goes on and on but what if there was a better way? What if you didn't have to do it all? In fact, what if the better way for the church to function was for you to do half of the things that you're doing right now?